Meet the Press Full Episode — August 9

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: - This Sunday, blueprint. [00:00:02] Abdul Al Sayed: - In the words of Muhammad Ali, we shook up the world. [00:00:05] Speaker 1: - What Michigan's primary reveals about the Democratic Party's direction and the path to winning in November. [00:00:11] Abdul Al Sayed: - The power of our many is greater than the power of their money. [00:00:15] Speaker 1: - Can a progressive win in a battleground state? I'll talk to Abdul Al-Sayed, the winner of the Democratic Senate primary in Michigan. Plus, depleted? Are America's weapons stockpiles running low? [00:00:29] Speaker 3: - We have certain types of munitions that are very powerful, that we have unlimited, virtual unlimited supply. We have others where it's a little bit tighter. [00:00:38] Speaker 1: - What it could mean for the war with Iran and U.S. military readiness. I'll talk to Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Republican Senator Jim Banks of Indiana. And stalled. The U.S. economy unexpectedly loses jobs. What does it signal about the economy and the midterm elections ahead? Joining me for insight and analysis are NBC News Chief Capitol Hill Correspondent Ryan Nobles, former Republican Congressman Carlos Corbello, and former Democratic Congresswoman Val Demings. Welcome to Sunday, it's "Meet the Press." [00:01:15] Speaker 4: from NBC News in Washington, the longest running show in television history. This is "Meet the Press" with Kristen Welker. [00:01:26] Speaker 1: - Good Sunday morning. With just over 12 weeks to go until November's midterm elections, the fight for control of Congress is taking shape, with pressure building in the key battleground states that will determine the balance of power in Washington. For Democrats, the path to retake the Senate majority is nearly impossible without holding on to Michigan. This week, progressive candidate Abdul Al Sayed defeated Congresswoman Haley Stevens in the Democratic primary for Michigan's Senate seat. He will face off against former Republican Congressman Mike Rogers in November. Friday night, Michigan Democrats held a unity rally headlined by former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. [00:02:11] Speaker 5: - Now, we have just 88 days to make sure that things go right. The stakes are high and people from around the country, people from around the world, are watching the state of Michigan right now to see if we have the capability to put together that coalition to win. And we will win. [00:02:34] Speaker 1: - And Republicans are already making the Michigan race a test of the Democratic Party's direction, with President Trump seizing on Al Sayed's progressive politics and labeling him a communist. [00:02:48] Speaker 3: - We do better against the communists, according to every poll. The poll says we do better against the communists, so he won, and so I think I'm happy I put out a statement. Congratulations to the Republican Party. [00:03:01] Speaker 1: - And joining me now is Michigan's Democratic Senate nominee, Abdul Al Sayed. Dr. Al Sayed, welcome to Meet the Press. [00:03:10] Abdul Al Sayed: - Thanks for having me. [00:03:12] Speaker 1: - Thank you so much for being here, and congratulations. Let's talk about your victory this week. You narrowly defeated Congresswoman Haley Stevens. And when you actually add up all of the votes, the vote totals that went to Stevens and Mallory McMorrow, a majority of voters actually ended up voting for candidates who are more moderate than you. So how do you win over those voters who voted for someone else? [00:03:42] Abdul Al Sayed: - Well, thank you, Kristen. I'm really just grateful for everybody who participated. And the overwhelming recognition of the vote tallies is that 500,000 more Democrats voted than did Republicans in that election. If that happens, we are going to win in a landslide. I know that we had it out with a very tough primary. There are a lot of issues that were discussed and differences that were identified and fixated on. But I will tell you this, that all of us agree that our differences are far smaller than what we agree on. And what we agree on is that Donald Trump has been an existential threat to our democracy. He is costing us jobs. He is costing us more at almost every aspect of our lives, whether it's our gas, our groceries, or our health care. And that Mike Rogers is going to be nothing more than a rubber stamp on Donald Trump's disastrous economic and foreign policies. And so this is the opportunity for us to come together to mend fences, to build together the coalition that is going to defeat Mike Rogers in November and defeat Trumpism over the next two years. [00:04:42] Speaker 1: - Well, let me ask you about some news that we are learning this morning. Local outlets reporting that you spoke to former President Barack Obama on the phone. I know you are not going to give me every detail of the call. But what was the crux of his message to you, Dr. El-Sayed? [00:05:02] Abdul Al Sayed: - Well, Kristen, you are right. I like to keep private conversations private. But it was a really warm and inspiring conversation. I got to be honest with you, I never saw myself ever able to run for public office. I literally told former President Bill Clinton that at my college graduation, in which I was the senior speaker and he was the main speaker. And I then watched the next year Barack Hussein Obama run for and win the presidency. I watched him serve with a level of class, a level of elegance that we could only pine for now. So I really enjoyed the conversation. I was grateful for his advice. It was very warm, very inviting. And I know that he knows the critical role that Michigan is going to play in holding Trump accountable, in winning back the Senate and in building forward the future that we need. [00:05:43] Speaker 1: - Is he going to campaign with you, Dr. El-Sayed? [00:05:46] Abdul Al Sayed: - Look, I really hope so. And it was a really good conversation about what we need to do to be able to win. And obviously, this is somebody who knows a lot about winning Michigan. [00:05:55] Speaker 1: - And just to be clear, do you anticipate he'll show up on the campaign trail with you? Is that one of the broad topics you all discussed? [00:06:02] Abdul Al Sayed: - Look, we talked a lot about what it'll take to win. Obviously, his presence here in Michigan would mean so much to the coalition that helped elect him. So I hope that we get to campaign together. [00:06:14] Speaker 1: - One of the big issues you ran on, of course, was Medicare for all. So let's talk about that. You served as a public health official in Michigan. You even co-authored a book, Making the Case for Medicare for All. Senator Bernie Sanders also campaigned on it as a presidential candidate back in 2016. Ten years later, this idea still does not have a majority support in Congress. If you were to win in November, Dr. El-Sayed, how do you make Medicare for all a reality when so far it has not had enough support? [00:06:50] Abdul Al Sayed: - Well, Kristen, I've been up and down my state. And everywhere I go, people say the same things. It just shouldn't be this hard. And one of the big things that they bring up is the fact that they're worried about having to see a doctor if they get sick and what that'll mean for them. The median deductible, meaning the money that you pay to get the health care you already thought you paid for every single month, it's about $4,500 for a family of four. That, considering the fact that the median income is about $80,000, means that you're going to lose more than a whole paycheck just to actually pay for the health care you thought you already paid for. Our system has only gotten less and less effective, less efficient over time, as we've watched health insurance corporations collude with big hospitals and the pharmaceutical industry to figure out how to pick more and more of our dollars out of our pocket to put into theirs. We don't have to live like this. We have an opportunity to guarantee cradle-to-grave health care from the moment that somebody is born to the moment that they expire, God willing, at 120 years of life after a long, healthy life in their sleep peacefully. And it would guarantee them the health care that they need independent of the circumstances, wherever they needed to go. That is the kind of security we've never had in this country and is the kind of security that the health care corporations have denied us. So we're watching more people support Medicare for all every day. We're watching more elected officials support Medicare for all every day. And in a lot of ways, this campaign was a referendum on whether or not we want health care here or bomb somewhere else. And I think the Michigan voter chose health care here. [00:08:15] Speaker 1: Well, you know, some Americans worry, though, you can only make Medicare free and universal if you increase taxes. So if you are elected and make this push, would you need to increase taxes? [00:08:28] Abdul Al Sayed: As I've said across this campaign, I am for taxing billionaires their wealth. [00:08:32] Speaker 1: What about people who make less than a billion and less than a million dollars, though, Dr. Al-Sayed? What about people making less than a million dollars? [00:08:41] Abdul Al Sayed: So for the average person, and you look at your W-2, if you're an employee, he gets paid every two weeks or four weeks. After you pay your taxes, the next biggest check that comes off the top of your pay stub is to your health insurance company. So imagine instead of paying that to your health insurance company, whose CEO makes $20 million a year, instead, you paid a little bit more in taxes for health care that you wouldn't lose if you lost your job or turned 26 or got married or got divorced. I think all of us would be a lot more interested in that kind of a system if we knew that our health care would be free at the point of care and would be free without having to worry about losing it in general. So there's an opportunity here, I think, to trade what we give to a big corporation who gets to decide who we get to see and who we don't for a little bit more paid into FICA. And I think that's a trade that's worth making. I think the broader public understands that that's a trade worth making considering how many people are holding medical debt, a third of all Michigan [00:09:39] Speaker 1: households right now. Just to be very clear, you're describing this trade-off. You are effectively acknowledging that people making less than a million dollars could see their taxes go up. I just [00:09:48] Abdul Al Sayed: want to be very clear. Is that a yes? I'm saying that we'd be paying for health care in a different way. Instead of paying a health insurance company whose CEO makes $20 million, I would much rather pay for durable health care into a government, which, of course, we all know provides health care for seniors who need health care the most. So if I'm trading paying a CEO to make more money or paying government to guarantee me health care, I'm picking the latter every time. [00:10:13] Speaker 1: All right. Let's talk about another big issue that dominated the campaign and will undoubtedly be a big topic of conversation in the general election. Your criticism of Israel. President Trump had this to say after your win this week. I'm going to play it. Get your reaction on the other side. Take a look. [00:10:30] Speaker 3: DONALD TRUMP: He doesn't love Israel. He doesn't love Jewish people. He hates them. He hates them with a passion that burns in his heart. [00:10:38] Speaker 1: DONALD TRUMP: What's your reaction to that, Dr. El-Sayed? [00:10:44] Abdul Al Sayed: I love and revere Judaism and the Jewish people. I believe they're a light unto the world. I grew up in a community that had a large Jewish population. I was so grateful to get to be invited to Seder and to Shul and to Bar and Bat Mitzvahs. I'm really honored for what I learned and got to share with my Jewish sisters and brothers. But they are not the same as AIPAC in Israel. AIPAC is an organization that spent, what, $30 million to beat me so that we could -- they could have one vote, one more vote in the U.S. Senate to guarantee that our taxpayer dollars would be sent abroad to subsidize a foreign government's military to do the worst things, genocide, apartheid, take us into wars. We have no business fighting. And I'm running for Senate here in Michigan. I believe that we have a responsibility here in Michigan. I want our tax dollars spent to provide good schools, to pay for health care, to rebuild our roads here in Michigan rather than it being sent abroad to subsidize foreign militaries. That's not just Israel, by the way. That is also Egypt and Saudi Arabia and Jordan and Pakistan. So I believe in international law. I believe in equal rights to peace, dignity, and self-determination for all people. I believe in a process that allows a free Palestinian people and free Jewish Israeli people to come together around what they believe the ultimate peace should look like. And I believe that our tax dollars should be spent on the things that are needed here in Michigan rather than to subsidize foreign militaries abroad. [00:12:02] Speaker 1: Let me follow up with you on that point. You've said -- you've just reiterated that you would rule out unconditional foreign military aid to Israel. Just to be very clear, is there any scenario where you would approve more aid to Israel, more military aid in any form? [00:12:21] Abdul Al Sayed: Well, if we were in a scenario where there were equal rights to peace, dignity, and self-determination for the Palestinian people and Jewish Israeli people, and they had come together to achieve that ultimate peace, and there were circumstances in which that was guaranteed, there would be a very, very different circumstance. But for right now, we are in a situation where we are continuously subsidizing the military of a state that has behaved in ways that can only be described as rogue. You think about the genocide in Gaza, you think about the continued attempt to annex southern Lebanon. These are things that we cannot subsidize considering the fact that we have kids who need better schools and better roads and bridges and [00:13:00] Speaker 1: better health care here in America. You're saying you would not support sending aid to Israel, which was attacked by Hamas, but you have also said that you would support sending military aid to Ukraine, which was, of course, attacked and invaded by Russia. Where do you draw the line there? [00:13:18] Abdul Al Sayed: Well, in Ukraine, you're talking about attacks from a leader of a neighboring sovereign country who clearly violated international law in attempting to breach the sovereignty of the Ukrainian public. That is conditional on that circumstance. We have been offering unconditional foreign military aid to Israel independent of the circumstances for years and years and years. And might I say, it's not just Israel, it's also Egypt, it's also Jordan, it's also Saudi Arabia. That's the difference. It's about the conditions. So when we're talking about taking on Putin and his violation of international law, I do believe we have responsibility to uphold international law and therefore to support Ukraine and its efforts. [00:13:57] Speaker 1: You have said, and I want to talk about your political identity now, you have said you're not a democratic socialist. You were backed by Senator Bernie Sanders, who of course proudly says he is a democratic socialist. You've even attended events hosted by the democratic socialists of America. Where do you differ from Senator Sanders? Is there one policy issue where you can point out a difference? [00:14:19] Abdul Al Sayed: Senator Sanders: Capitalism? You know, I'm a scientist and I believe in good, thoughtful, evidence-based solutions to problems. You know, when it comes to the question of capitalism, allocating capital based on supply and demand, at the level at which it's supposed to work, where you have free entry and exit into markets, you know, I support that idea. I understand right now, though, that we don't live under capitalism, we live under corporatism. You have huge corporations that have used their power, in effect, to try and buy politicians so that those politicians will turn around and help them use government to protect their position in markets. That is anti-capitalist. And look, you can go back to Adam Smith, the guy who coined the idea of capitalism, and he understood that the biggest risk to capitalism was not government regulation. It was always monopoly and oligopoly. If you think about the circumstances that we live under right now, the power of the biggest players in almost every market, both to squeeze labor to pay us less and to raise prices so that we have to pay more, that has been anti-capitalist on its own terms. And so it's not that you have to be a socialist to believe that the government has a role in protecting a market or guaranteeing us health care or fixing our roads and bridges or providing us good schools. It's that you have to understand what capitalism is and how it works. [00:15:36] Speaker 1: I want to give you an opportunity to respond to some of the other attacks against you. This is an ad by the Republican Party. Take a look. [00:15:45] Speaker 6: Abdulrahman Mohammed El-Sayed, the most radical Senate candidate in America. [00:15:50] Speaker 1: I'm pretty dangerous. [00:15:52] Speaker 6: El-Sayed pledged support for the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, a designated foreign terrorist group. [00:15:57] Speaker 1: Radical, dangerous. How do you respond? [00:16:02] Abdul Al Sayed: We always knew they were going to go here. I mean, notice how they chose to use my full name in echoes to exactly what they did against President Obama. At the end of the day, it's not radical to believe that people should be able to afford their groceries. It's not radical to believe that you should have health care in this country. It's not radical to believe that you don't think the president should be able to deny elections or make $2.2 billion off of his role in office. It's not radical to believe that all of us should be able to breathe clean air and drink clean water. Those are the things that I've been fighting for. I believe in an America where all of us can come together to build together a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Now, they're going to try and paint me as a certain thing, given my name. But I also think it's important for us to recognize that America has a long history of embracing America is a lot bigger than very small people like Donald Trump or J.D. Vance or Mike Rogers want to make it out to be. And so I'm grateful for all that America has given me. And I'm grateful for the opportunity now to put myself out there and ask my fellow Michiganders for their stake in our democracy to be able to build an America that's more just, that's more equitable, that's more sustainable, that's more empowering, that's more American than the vision that Donald Trump, J.D. Vance and Mike Rogers have for it. [00:17:16] Speaker 1: You know, you face scrutiny for campaigning with socialist streamer Hassan Piker, who has made a series of inflammatory comments, as you well know, including saying America deserved 9/11, describing Hamas as a lesser evil than Israel. Do you plan to continue to campaign with Hassan Piker in the general election campaign? [00:17:38] Abdul Al Sayed: Look, I'm less concerned now with who I'm campaigning with, a lot more concerned about who I'm campaigning to. We've got a lot of work to do to continue to build the coalition that's going to be Mike Rogers. Would you welcome him, though, on the campaign trail with you? Like I said, I'm a lot more focused on who I'm campaigning to. So I think we have this notion sometimes on shows like this that we cannot or should not talk to certain groups of people. And I'll tell you that the three million people who listen to Hassan are people. I want to make sure understand that there's a pathway into our politics around getting money out of politics so we can keep money back in pockets and pass Medicare for all. And so I'm going to continue to have the conversations with those folks who we desperately need to reach out to, just like I'm going to continue to have conversations with seniors in senior homes, folks up north, folks in Detroit, folks in Grand Rapids. So again, I'm a lot more focused on who I'm campaigning to rather than who [00:18:31] Speaker 1: I might campaign with. When asked about Hassan Piker's comments on 9/11, Senator Bernie Sanders called it a dumb statement. Do you agree? Do you disavow those comments that America deserved 9/11? [00:18:46] Abdul Al Sayed: Of course. Of course, it was a dumb statement. And of course, I think Hassan himself would say that was a dumb statement. He disavowed it. So yes, America didn't deserve 9/11. But to sit here and play gotcha politics with a dumb thing somebody said out of context, that they disavowed themselves to say, oh, well, what does that mean about what you think? I want to be held accountable for what I say and what I do, rather than this idea that we're so stuck in cancel culture that all of us agreed was a bad idea back in 2020, but we seem to want to bring back. We are out of time, but I have to ask you before [00:19:17] Speaker 1: I let you go, if you win, you will be the very first Muslim to serve in the Senate. What would that mean [00:19:23] Abdul Al Sayed: to you, Dr. Al-Sayed? Honestly, I haven't really thought that much about it, but it's more about what it means to America. You know, this is a place that some people wanted to find is a lot smaller than it is. I've been Abdul in Michigan my whole life. And I know that people are big hearted and open minded. That's the America I've always seen. And once again, Michiganders get to prove just how big hearted and open minded we really are against the small vision that people like Donald Trump want to perpetrate on us. So it really is about proving out the America that America has always been this place that embraces people beyond differences in faith or ethnicity to come together [00:20:00] Speaker 1: around the ideals that bind us here. Dr. Abdul Al-Sayed, thank you so very much for joining us. We really appreciate it. Thank you, Kristen. When we come back, Republican Senator Jim Banks of Indiana joins me next. Welcome back and joining me now is Republican Senator Jim Banks of Indiana. Senator Banks, welcome to Meet the Press. Thank you. Good to be with you. It is great to have you here. I want to start right there on Michigan, this big Senate race. More than 1.5 million voters participated in the Democratic primary. That is a 64% increase in turnout from the 2024 primary in Michigan. What do you think Mike Rogers needs to do to win over some of those Democrats and more independent voters? [00:21:00] Speaker 7: Well, Mike Rogers just barely lost in the last cycle to Alyssa Slotkin who ran as a moderate. And what you just heard from with Dr. Abdul Al-Sayed, you just heard from the most extreme socialist-leaning Democrat candidate in America. That's why Chuck Schumer did everything that he could to block Al-Sayed from winning the Democrat primary. This week you had Democrats scrambling. You had prominent Democrats like the former press secretary to Jill Biden endorsed Mike Rogers. Julian Epstein wrote that Democrats have lost their moral authority by nominating Al-Sayed. Mike Rogers is already building a strong Democrats for Rogers group with momentum to pick up those voters. And let me say this, I grew up in a union factory household, the son of a factory worker, not far from Michigan in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Those factory workers and their families are not going to vote for Al-Sayed and his extreme positions. He can try to erase everything that he said during the primary about abolishing prisons, defunding the police, his attack on a lot of the policies that make those factory workers' jobs possible. He wants open borders. Those families just want to raise their kids and keep them safe. And Al-Sayed wants to abolish prisons and defund the police. Mike Rogers is going to win big in November, the first time in 30 years that Michigan has elected a Republican will be this November. And Republicans have never felt better about keeping the Senate majority. [00:22:36] Speaker 1: Well, let me ask you, you describe Dr. Al-Sayed as extreme. Your Senate colleague, Tommy Tupperville, has called him a terrorist. Senator Ted Cruz said Al-Sayed wants "sharia law." To be fair, there's no evidence to support those claims. Do you believe those attacks go too far, Senator? [00:22:54] Speaker 7: Well, Kristen, look, he wants to deny it now, but Al-Sayed campaigned as a Democrat socialist. He attended six different DSA-type events, including fundraisers for Democrat socialists. The Democrat socialist group in Detroit praised him. They said that he was one of their own. He staked out socialist positions. He can call himself a capitalist this week after the Democrat primary is over. But look at everything that he said and his record during the Democrat primary. And you see that he is the most extreme candidate. He would, if he were, if he were happened to, if he happened to get elected in the November election, he would make Bernie Sanders look squishy in the, in the, in the Democrat caucus in the Senate. Even, even Bernie Sanders has staked out positions to try to distance himself from what, from what Al-Sayed has campaigned with. And you, you just heard in the segment in your interview, he still refuses to say that he doesn't align or that he won't campaigned with Piker, who is a, who is a, who is a radical, who, who, who said that America deserved 9-11. He, he campaigned with a lot of figures like that during the primary. And still today, he won't, he won't distance himself from those extreme voices and those characters in the, in the, in the, in the socialist wing of the Democrat party. This isn't just about Michigan though. This is about Indiana and what the Democrat party has become nationwide. And that's why Democrats are scrambling this week to distance themselves from Al-Sayed and his, his radical positions. [00:24:29] Speaker 1: Well, let me ask you now about the biggest issue for voters, the economy, one of the most defining issues of the midterm. Certainly President Trump said this week, quote, I think we should be given an A-plus on the economy. Friday's jobs report, as you know, says the U.S. lost 23,000 jobs in July. Do you think President Trump deserves an A-plus on the economy, Senator? [00:24:54] Speaker 7: I do. And here's why. Every single jobs report, except for this one, has exceeded expectations. And there's, there's still good news, even in this July jobs report, about the resurgence of manufacturing jobs and construction jobs that are being created in America. Don't never forget that the last two years that Joe Biden was in the White House, we lost a quarter of a million manufacturing jobs. And we've seen a significant resurgence because of President Trump's trade policies and bringing back those good-paying factory jobs, advanced manufacturing jobs. We're seeing it nowhere more than in states like Indiana. That, that's the return of the made in America economy. Those are long-term sustainable jobs. And we're going to keep seeing that in this Trump economy. So this jobs report was a blip. It's the only one on President Trump's watch so far that, that, that, that, that lacked job growth, but baked within it, you see the increase in manufacturing jobs, especially as you look at the AI economy that we're entering into. These are the, these construction jobs and manufacturing jobs are the types of jobs [00:26:03] Speaker 1: we want to bring back to America. And yet, Senator, most polls show that President Trump is under water on his handling of the economy, in part being dragged down by the war with Iran. And I do want to turn to Iran. I want to play something that you said about President Trump back in June of 2025. This was before the president had taken any military action in Iran. Take a look. [00:26:24] Speaker 7: President Trump is the greatest peacemaker of my lifetime. He is the only president not to get our country into a new war in the last four decades. Senator, do you still see President Trump now we're [00:26:39] Speaker 1: nearly five months into the war with Iran as the greatest peacemaker? I do. His legacy is going to be [00:26:49] Speaker 7: largely wrapped up in ensuring that Iran never has a nuclear weapon. I do not want my kids to grow up in a world where Iran has a nuclear weapon that will be pointed directly at the United States of America, at our troops abroad, at our allies. And President Trump is the first president in 47 years who's had the guts to stand up to the regime there and tell them that they're not going to get away with it. There's been lots of good news of what's happened. The greatest military in the world as an Afghanistan veteran myself, watching what our military has accomplished, wiping out 85% of Iran's ballistic missiles, Iran's defense industrial base, and making sure that they can never achieve their ultimate goal to have that nuclear weapon. That's all good news. And President Trump's use of the naval blockade, he's crippled Iran's economy. That in and of itself will bring lasting peace, not just to the Middle East, but to the rest of the world and projects American strength in a way that I've never seen in my lifetime. So he is a peacemaker. This is a key part of ensuring peace for the ages, and President Trump deserves a lot of credit for it. All right. Before I let you go, [00:27:59] Speaker 1: I do want to ask you about another big issue looming over the midterms about your Republican colleague, Congressman Max Miller. A number of your Republican colleagues in the Senate, as you know, including his former father-in-law, Senator Bernie Moreno, are calling on Congressman Miller to resign. Now, he has been accused, just so our viewers know, of emotionally and physically abusing his ex-wife and his two-year-old daughter. He adamantly denies those allegations. But do you believe Congressman Miller should drop his reelection bid and resign from Congress? [00:28:35] Speaker 7: Well, the allegations are deeply troubling. And I know I served with his father-in-law, Senator Bernie Sanders. I know everyone involved, and it's heartbreaking to see all of this play out publicly. The allegations against him are terrible. And he's endangering a seat in Congress as we're trying to keep the majority in the House. And he should drop out if he's endangering that seat. He should drop out because of the allegations against him. So, but at the end of the day, it's heartbreaking to see when kids are involved, something like this happened. And I want to pray for his family, all those involved, especially the children, and hope that justice prevails in this case. [00:29:17] Speaker 1: And just to be very clear, Ohio Senator John Husted also calling on him to resign. Are you saying you believe he should resign? It sounds like that's what you're saying. [00:29:28] Speaker 7: Well, if the allegations are true and watching this play out publicly, of course he should resign. I live in Indiana. This is a race in northern Ohio and the other part of the state. I don't know enough about the political dynamics, but I've watched the allegations. They're deeply troubling. And and I just, I pray for all involved, especially the kid. And, and, you know, hope that this hope [00:29:54] Speaker 1: that justice prevails in this case. Senator Jim Banks, thank you so very much for your time. We really appreciate your joining us this morning. Thank you. And when we come back, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut joins me next. Welcome back. And joining me now is Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut. Senator Murphy, welcome back to Meet the Press. Yeah, great to be with you. It's great to have you. Let's talk about what happened in Michigan. You actually endorsed in the Michigan primary, Mallory McMorrow. She ended up dropping out about a month ago and you waited until after Abdul Al-Sayed won to send out a tweet saying you endorse him. Did you misread [00:30:39] Speaker 8: where the Democratic electorate is? Oh, I endorsed Mallory because she's a long time friend. She and I have worked together very closely on anti-gun violence measures, but I'm really excited for Abdul's win. He is a candidate that is running on some simple ideas. Corporations have too much power. Workers have too little. Our politics are rigged. That's why prices are so high. Donald Trump's corruption should be unacceptable and the Senate should be a place that ends it. So I think you'll see a lot of my colleagues in Michigan. I'll be there supporting him because he's presenting a strong contrast with a candidate who is pro-corporate, who is pro-Trump, who is pro-war. I think he's going to do incredibly well in that [00:31:24] Speaker 1: campaign. You heard him express confidence about Medicare for all. Do you think that could pass the [00:31:30] Speaker 8: Senate if Democrats do, in fact, win control? Yeah, I don't know. But I think what I do know is that people are sick and tired of the status quo on health care. They are sick and tired of pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies having all the power. And they have that power because our politics is rigged. I have supported a Medicare for all idea in which everyone would get to choose Medicare if they wanted. But I think both of us believe that the current system is rigged to benefit the big healthcare insurance companies and that everyone in this country should have access to the Medicare plan, every business, every individual. And if they did, I think people would find that's better and cheaper healthcare. And the only reason that they don't have that access is because our politics are bought off [00:32:19] Speaker 1: by those insurance and drug companies. Let me ask you about the race moving forward, because as you know, Dr. Al-Sayed narrowly beat Haley Stevens. And now he's facing off against former Congressman Mike Rogers, who is making a clear play to try to win over some of those voters, some of those Democrats, independent voters who did not vote for Dr. Al-Sayed. Take a look at this ad. [00:32:45] Speaker 9: If you're among the majority of Democratic voters that woke up on Wednesday feeling, well, hopeless, because the person who won does not represent your values, well, just know there is still hope. Michigan deserves a senator who is ready to sit with you, hear from you and represent you. [00:33:02] Speaker 1: What do you say to Democrats who might believe that Dr. Al-Sayed does not represent their values? [00:33:07] Speaker 8: Well, Mike Rogers is going to represent only one person in the United States Senate, Donald Trump. The entire Republican Party has become a cult of personality in which they have no ability to think independently. They do only what Donald Trump asks them to do and tells them to do. What I also know, is I served with Mike Rogers, is that he is one of the hawkish, most pro-war, was one of the most hawkish pro-war members of the House of Representatives. He is going to be a rubber stamp for this president's war in Iran that has gas prices in Michigan right now hovering around $4.20 a gallon, that has no end in sight, that is bankrupting the American treasury. I do think this election is going to be a referendum on this war that Donald Trump is losing. And Mike Rogers is well known as one of the biggest proponents of the American military being engaged in foreign conflicts in the [00:34:04] Speaker 1: United States Senate. I want to ask you about one of the issues that is dividing Democrats. We saw this certainly in 2024. It's the issue of Israel. Do you think Democrats need to have a more unified message in order to be able to win purple states like Michigan? Well, listen, here's my view. I want [00:34:23] Speaker 8: there to be a strong U.S.-Israel relationship. I support Israel. I cannot support this government's actions. They are not aligned with U.S. national security objectives. And so I think that until we have a different government and a different policy in Israel, it's going to be hard for people like me that want a Palestinian state side by side with a Jewish state in the region to support continuing to send arms to Israel. But your question is, should the Democrats have one position? Well, no. We have disagreements inside the Democratic Party. There were disagreements in Michigan. And that's the sign of a healthy party. What's the alternative? Well, the alternative is the Republican Party, in which they are not allowed to have disagreements. The only thing they can think is what Donald Trump thinks. That's not a healthy party. I want to be a part of a party that occasionally actually has disagreements inside it. But does it [00:35:25] Speaker 1: concern you that Dr. Al-Sayed, for example, describes Israel as committing a genocide and apartheid? [00:35:31] Speaker 8: Well, I think what you heard him say is that he will support funding to Israel so long as Israel is on a path to live side by side with a Palestinian state. And I think that is a view that is shared by [00:35:46] Speaker 1: a wide cross section of Americans. I want to ask you about Iran. You have been clear that you want the war to end. Is there any deal that could be negotiated that you would support, that you would get behind in order to say this is good enough now to end the war and declare victory and move on? [00:36:05] Speaker 8: So Donald Trump has lost this war. America is weaker. Iran is stronger. The price to reopen the strait increases by the day. The supposed deal that's on the table right now would pay Iran 100 million dollars, excuse me, billion dollars a year in order to reopen the strait. That is one-third of Iran's entire economy. What a victory for Iran. At the end of this war, they get paid to reopen the strait. They get paid to rebuild their military. They get paid to rebuild their support for proxies in the region. The answer to your question is, yes, I will support a deal to end this war and reopen the strait. I am prepared to support a bad deal to end this war and reopen the strait. Because the only deal that is available at this point in time is a terrible, bad deal. But the war needs to end because every day that the war continues, America gets weaker, Iran gets stronger, and people here in the United States get [00:37:07] Speaker 1: screwed as prices go up and up and up. Let me ask you because, Secretary Headset, the Pentagon requesting an additional 67 billion dollars in defense funding in part to replenish stockpiles that have been depleted. Now, as a member of the Appropriations Committee, you have said that you're not going to support additional funding. But let's say that Democrats do win back the Senate, the majority in January. How do you plan to replenish those stockpiles? Well, the priority right now is [00:37:35] Speaker 8: ending this war. Seven in ten Americans want this war to end. Families are being bankrupted as we speak by this war. As kids are going back to school, families are realizing that filling up lunch boxes this year is going to cost them $4,000 more than it did last year. That is mostly because of this war. So no, I'm not going to support funding to keep this war going. But if the war comes to an end, if the president ends this war, then yes, of course, I and my colleagues will be ready to provide the funding to replenish the stores of munitions that have been spent. But it is important to understand how much money that's going to cost. We have used up almost all of our interceptors, the majority of our tomahawks. We have put the United States in a dangerous position. We have allowed Russia and China to to imagine things that they couldn't have imagined earlier because of our inability to defend ourselves and our allies. So the priority is ending this war. And no, I'm not going to support additional funding. And I don't think my Democratic colleagues are going to support additional funding to fund a continuation of a war that is destroying American credibility and destroying American families. [00:38:48] Speaker 1: All right. Senator Chris Murphy, thank you so very much for being here. We really appreciate it. Thank you. Good to see you as always. And when we come back, Democrats searching for a new direction and a question from decades ago that still resonates today. Our Meet the Press Minute is next. Welcome back. Progressive wins like Abdul Al-Sayed's are fueling a debate among Democrats over the party's direction ahead of November. It's not the first time Democrats have been deeply divided over the party's future. In 1968, the Vietnam War was tearing the party apart and raising questions about its future. Fresh off of announcing his bid for president, Senator Robert F. Kennedy joined Meet the Press and was asked whether the Democratic Party was still worth saving. [00:39:38] Speaker 10: It's the party of hope. It's the party of what we can do in the future. It's the party that meets problems, talks about problems, faces it, has debates, and then decides what's the best course for this country. If you're talking about the organization, in some areas the Democratic Party is strongly organized. In some areas of the United States it's very weak. But I think that if we have an ideal, I think that if we have a central thought around which we can rally, then it seems to me that there can be a greater unity within the Democratic Party and that we can accomplish something. The Democratic Party is the oldest political party in the world today. I think it stands for. [00:40:20] Speaker 1: When we come back, Democrats race to unify the Party. What are the challenges ahead? The panel is next. Welcome back. The panel is here. NBC News Chief Capitol Hill Correspondent Ryan Nobles, former Democratic Congresswoman Val Demings, and former Republican Congressman Carlos Corbello. Thank you all for being here after the big primary races this week. Ryan, we cannot overstate the significance of Michigan. Nearly impossible for Democrats to win the Senate if they don't hold on to Michigan. How do you see the race playing out, particularly given everything that we heard this morning? I think it's pretty simple, Kristen. [00:41:01] Speaker 11: Michigan is now the most important state on the map and the most competitive state on the map, I think both for Republicans and Democrats, with Maine being a close second. And this is going to be a test for Democrats. Are they able to tap in to the energy and the enthusiasm of the progressive left of their party, which are clearly are willing to come out and vote and participate in this election, without at the same time alienating those moderate, independent, and maybe even disaffected Republicans that it will require to win in a place like Michigan? If that formula works, it will be a huge night for Democrats in this November midterms. But if it backfires, you could see them and their Senate majority chances perhaps slipping away because they have to have Michigan if they have any chance of [00:41:47] Speaker 1: winning the majority. Congresswoman, pick up on that point. The fact that we saw in the primary, Abdul Al-Sayed wasn't able to have big turnout when it came to African-American voters who favored Haley [00:41:58] Speaker 12: Stevens, older voters as well. Well, enthusiasm is certainly there. We need to capitalize on that. But we have to understand that black voters live in the real world every day. And the real world really does not favor their circumstances. Abdul really needs to spend time showing up, making contacts, building relationships, building trust. You cannot alienate those establishment members that the black community trust and believe in. Like Obama? Like Obama, like Jim Cliveau, like others. They knew Haley Stevens. They do not know him. But all he needs to do is show up, meet, ask tough questions, allow them to ask tough questions, build relationships. Because what the black community understands is that they want a person that has an agenda that favors them. That is not Mike Rogers. Congressman, how do you see it? [00:42:58] Speaker 1: And how do you see the strategy of trying to paint him as extreme? Kristen, I think that the hopes that [00:43:05] Speaker 13: Democrats had of winning the Senate majority have dimmed significantly after this primary result. Worst case scenario, they're going to have to spend a lot of resources in Michigan. Those resources could have been spent on offense in other states like Texas, for example, or Kansas. We know Senator Schubert's talking about Kansas now. Who knows, right? But when you look at the two candidates in Michigan now, and Mike Rogers, you have someone who's far closer to the political center of the state of do also. Yeah, Mike Rogers. Sure. He's got the Trump endorsement, but he's got deep roots in the Reagan Bush Republican Party, too. He was elected to Congress in 2000. He's a national security Republican, not really someone that you could call offensive or scary to any kind of voter in Michigan. So I do think that Mike Rogers now incredibly is the slight favorite in Michigan. Well, pick up on that [00:43:55] Speaker 1: point that the Congressman makes, Ryan, because you do have Chuck Schumer publicly saying he feels maybe Kansas is in play, maybe Mississippi. Really? Is that possible? Yeah. I do think Democrats are very [00:44:06] Speaker 11: encouraged by the candidate that won the primary there and that they think that they will at least have a fighter's chance there. But I think what Chuck Schumer is trying to do is build enthusiasm all across the country. I think if you're a Democratic voter in a place like Michigan and you see that the Senate majority could be at stake and maybe you're not that excited about Abdul El-Sayed, but you hear Schumer talking about winning back the majority, then maybe you're more encouraged to go out to the polls. What Chuck Schumer is painting here is a realistic opportunity for them to win a majority in a year where even though the president's approval rating is very low, the map does not favor Democrats. He needs Democrats to believe they can win the majority. And that's why he's talking about places like Kansas, Mississippi, [00:44:49] Speaker 12: Iowa, and others. Is that how you see it? Leader Schumer said this, and I believe it. You expand or get close or take the majority by expanding the map. Candidate quality matters. And when we look at Kansas, even the Cook Political Report has moved the wall a little bit there in favor of Democrats. But candidate quality matters. And Pastor Hamilton is a different kind of candidate with the message that he has been spreading in Kansas for decades. He has over 40 churches, 100,000 people listen to him every Sunday. He's trustworthy. And he's a fifth generation. He's the candidate we need. [00:45:26] Speaker 1: We do go back to this idea over and over again that candidate quality does make a difference and sometimes determines how the race. That's right, Kristen. And what Democrats are going through now [00:45:38] Speaker 13: is what Mitch McConnell went through for many years and during the Tea Party wave and all of the radicalization on the right where he got candidates that couldn't win. Do you see this as a Tea Party moment? Is this Democrats Tea Party moment? I think it is very similar. When you look at 2010 and a lot of the seats that Republicans left on the table because they had candidates that were too far to the right. Look at 2022. Republicans have the wind at their backs. They couldn't close the deal in Arizona, in Nevada, in Pennsylvania. Why? Because their candidates just didn't appeal to enough voters and scared a lot of voters. I think that's the problem that Democrats are going to face in Michigan. Look at what we're talking about. We're talking about whether or not Alcide's a capitalist, right? He said he's a capitalist on the show this morning. I thought that was a huge statement. A lot of the people who voted for him are not capitalists. Bernie Sanders, his most prominent supporter, is an anti-capitalist. So these candidates that draw a lot of attention to themselves end up costing their party seats. [00:46:34] Speaker 11: Kristen, I do think the White House risks alienating moderate voters if they go too far with this idea of a red scare of communism, when a lot of what these progressive candidates are talking about are basic kitchen table issues. And that's where the White House is going to have to [00:46:50] Speaker 1: find a way to thread that needle. All right. Fantastic conversation. We will watch it closely. Thank you all so much for a great panel discussion. That is all for today. Thank you for watching. We'll be back next week, because if it's Sunday, it's Meet the Press. [00:47:13] Speaker 5: Thank you for watching, and remember, stay updated on breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app, or watch live on our YouTube channel.